Collection Growing!

Ah, eBay, the evil shopping site that causes me to lose too much time in trying to source quality painted aircraft. Luckily, there is a gamer who mentioned on the Check Your 6! discussion group that he was selling off his collection, and so I have been able to score some interesting aircraft - none of which were needed mind you, but certainly desired!

First, a half dozen Heinkel He 111s, painted up for the Battle of Britain, and in this case are the old Falcon Miniatures castings. In actuality, since being able to pick up some other Battle of Britain aircraft from a gaming buddy (featured HERE), this purchase actually does fit! I can add two more scenarios from the various with the addition of these Heinkels, and admittedly I was able to win these for far less than I expected.

Picture from eBay listing

The paint work is very good but there are a few inconsistencies with the decals - German crosses are not all the same size, some are not on the undersides of the wings, and some are at a bit of an angle, but truly trivial points when it comes to the overall look.

And a picture upon arrival.

I hope to win more auctions from this seller as I am rather pleased with this first purchase, and it helps me to quickly add to my collection!

Genda's Blade

Website image - not great

I am trying to fill in gaps in my World War II gaming -the challenge being the number of theaters that makes this an impossible task to go along with my interest in just about everything. Regardless of my lack of focus, recently I have been looking at late war action in the Pacific, and to that end purchased the "Genda's Blade" pack from I-94. The pack features either eight or sixteen Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden-Kai (Violet Lightning-Improved) fighters (Raiden Miniatures) along with a decal sheet for the 407th Hikotai (made by the now defunct Dom's Decals) which is not available for separate purchase (and because I have a bit of an addiction, I have also ordered the same planes from Flight Deck Decals, for a future comparison post). The N1K2-J, known to the Allies as "George", was a beast - fairly fast, decently maneuverable, and armed with four 20mm cannons, albeit I believe the same type found on the A6M series (and hence meriting only LVC in Check Your 6!). 

My image, a little better

The term Genda's Blade comes from the formation of the 343rd Kōkūtai, an elite unit created in late 1944 by Minoru Genda, himself an extremely experienced pilot, although one with no victories during the war. Genda recruited the best Japanese Navy pilots he could gather, which included several aces. The following chart lists some of them and their number of kills before joining the 343rd (if Japanese records can be believed). Bear in mind I use the same convention for rating aircrews as found in the Battles Above series of scenario books with experts having fifty kills or more given a +4 rating and the ability to adjust up to three turn codes left or right of the originally plotted turn code (although I still need to test that last tweak a bit). Aces then have twenty to forty-nine kills, veteran aircrews are either highly experienced and/or have five to nineteen kills, skilled pilots are well trained and/or have one to four kills, and green are just that. 

Several other pilots became aces while serving with the 343rd Kōkūtai. Overall, aircrew quality for the kōkūtai should be similar to early war Japanese ratings, with little to no green aircrews, a bulk of skilled, and as you see from the above table, numerous veterans.

Raiden version - needs some cleanup but the casting is crisp

When American pilots encountered this unit, they realized they were not facing the remaining dregs of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force, but pilots with skill as great if not better than their own, flying an aircraft as good if not better than their own. 

There is an exceptional book titled...wait for it...Genda's Blade! This detailed offering provides an insight, through several first person accounts. However, the book is out of print and is expensive on the aftermarket sites. But if one wants a deep dive into The N1K and/or the 343rd Kōkūtai, it is a must have title. Using Genda's Blade and AI I will be woking up some scenarios in the future.

Vallejo Model Air RLM Colors

A placeholder post for my own personal reference, but others might find this useful as opposed to using the charts from Vallejo. 

Early War and Pre-War Colors

RLM 01 Silber → 71.063 Silver (Metallic)

RLM 02 Grau → 71.044 Grey

RLM 04 Gelb → 71.078 Yellow

RLM 21 Weiß → 71.001 White

RLM 22 Schwarz → 71.057 Black

RLM 23 Rot → 71.003 Red RLM23

RLM 24 Dunkelblau → 71.266 Dark Blue

RLM 25 Hellgrün → 71.267 Light Green

RLM 27 Gelb → 71.078 Yellow (Commonly used as the substitute match)

RLM 61 Dunkelbraun → 71.042 Dark Brown

RLM 62 Grün → 71.104 Green

RLM 63 Hellgrau → 71.260 Light Grey

RLM 65 Hellblau → 71.255 Light Blue

RLM 66 Schwarzgrau → 71.055 Black Grey

Mid-War and Camouflage Colors

RLM 70 Schwarzgrün → 71.021 Black Green

RLM 71 Dunkelgrün → 71.015 Dark Green

RLM 72 Grün → 71.011 Dark Green (Vallejo labels this bottle as RLM72/73/83 variant interchangeably in older sets, but 71.011 serves as maritime Green)

RLM 73 Grün → 71.011 Dark Green

RLM 74 Dunkelgrau → 71.258 Grey Green

RLM 75 Grauviolett → 71.259 Grey Violet (Alternatively numbered as 71.128 in specific sub-sets)

RLM 76 Lichtblau → 71.257 Light Blue

RLM 77 Hellgrau → 71.121 USAF Light Grey (Closest close match, requires slight thinning/fading)

RLM 78 Himmelblau → 71.101 Light Blue

RLM 79 Sandgelb → 71.122 Desert Tan/71.268 German Grey (Note: 71.122 closely aligns with the standard 79 Sandgelb variant)

RLM 80 Olivgrün → 71.013 Yellow Olive

Late-War Colors

RLM 81 Braunviolett → 71.264 Brown Violet (Can also appear as 71.043 depending on production batch)

RLM 82 Hellgrün → 71.022 Light Green

RLM 83 Dunkelgrün → 71.011 Dark Green